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When Google released its newest AI image model Nano Banana Pro (aka Gemini 3 Pro Image) in November, it reset expectations for the entire field. For the first time, uses of an image model could use natural language to generate dense, text-heavy infographics, slides, and other enterprise-grade visuals without spelling errors. But that leap forward came with a familiar tradeoff. Gemini 3 Pro Image is deeply proprietary, tightly bound to Google’s cloud stack, and priced for premium usage. For

After a year like 2025, it's easy for anyone who inhales large quantities of online news to be downhearted. This was a year that began with a terrifying salute from the world's richest man. His government IT department, known as DOGE, swung a wrecking ball at the agency that oversees U.S. overseas aid; many experts say widespread disease and famine will be the result. There was already a famine in Gaza, ceasefire notwithstanding. Ukraine remains at war. Climate change is still a thing, 2025 was

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is spending millions to turn the chronically online into deportation agents, according to internal communications reviewed exclusively by the Washington Post. The agency's $100 million marketing strategy, detailed in a 30-page document distributed to ICE officials this summer, includes a massive push to flood the digital market with geo-targeted and content-based advertising. The plan even names specific platforms, like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, You

BookTok still runs the publishing industry. Many of the books you might hear about most on TikTok aren't exactly recent. Readers are drawn into the community by watching re-reads of Harry Potter or experiencing the thrill of first reads of A Court of Thorns and Roses, the gripping young adult fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas. However, when a new novel is released, BookTok can take on a contemporary feel.Here are the top 16 books published in 2025 so far, according to BookTok, organ

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Ringing in the new year from your couch this year? You certainly aren't al

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For many people, New Year's resolutions begin with an app download. Fitness trackers and habit builders have become the default way we mark January as a turning point, especially in the wellness space.But resolutions, even when mediated by gentle push notifications, still arrive loaded with expectation.SEE ALSO:I ran the NYC Marathon wearing 7 fitness trackers and they all watched me throw up
As TikTok creator @notwildlin put it in a video with more than 210,000 views, while the New Year is fram

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As we sit waiting for 2025 to end and 2026 to

2025 was the year a lot of people gave in and made generative AI part of their lives, for better or worse.A major factor contributing to its proliferation was the spread of easily accessible image generators from the likes of Google and OpenAI. In particular, plenty of folks found time to mess around in Google's Nano Banana image tool in 2025, and the company dedicated a blog post to revealing several of the most popular prompts users tried out this year. You can check out the full list on Googl

For a long period during the height of the NYT Games craze of 2020, new Wordle strategies appeared on the timeline like clockwork. But in the years since, players have honed their personal strategies in ways that have made keeping up with daily streaks a piece of cake. That doesn't mean there's not more to mine from the game. This week, social media users came across an apparently foolproof way to whittle away at incorrect letters and make use of those anagram skills. SEE ALSO:The 11 best video

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Well, Hellfire Club, it's finally here. The very, very end of Stranger Things, after almost 10 years and five seasons of the Duffer Brothers' smash Netflix series. We've ridden our bikes through Scoops Ahoy sundaes and Spider Monster battles in the Starcourt Mall, through Billy's Mind Flayer recruitment drive, all the way to shredding Metallica in the Upside Down and staring into the Abyss.SEE ALSO:Gaten Matarazzo hoped 'Stranger Things' fans would be conflicted about Dustin in Season 5
The fina

If you're not into crowds, streaming the New Year’s Eve fireworks from home has become a bit of an annual hack. HUNTR/X gets it — ringing in midnight from your couch is highly underrated, toasting what was and could be ahead with an actual glass, not an overpriced plastic cup whose crappy contents are inevitably destined for the front of your shirt in the chaos. Thankfully, digital streams of the iconic and deeply expensive fireworks from around the globe are easily accessible, from

The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult to solve if you're preparing your resolutions.Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.If you just want to be told today's puzzle,

Today's Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you're an emergency worker.If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.SEE ALSO:Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO:NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for December 31, 2025
Where did Wordle come from?Originally created by

Today's NYT Strands hints are easy if you love going in circles.Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or p

The first Full Moon of 2026 is keeping the supermoon streak alive. After a string of them to end 2025, we get one more to kick off the new year. October, November, and December all saw beautiful, large moons in the sky, and January will be no different.A supermoon is really what the name suggests, a Full Moon that appears bigger and brighter in the sky than usual, perfect for late-night stargazing. There's lots happening with the January Full Moon, so keep reading to find out what it means.When

Today's Connections: Sports Edition will be easier if you know American baseball.As we've shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans. Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over

2025 was the year technology stopped being tomorrow’s promise and became today’s anchor. What began as a surge in generative AI and platform innovation two years prior crystallized this year into concrete shifts in how people work, governing bodies legislate, and markets invest. Across continents and industries, the arc of technology bent toward practical impact, regulatory reality, and economic weight. At the heart of the year’s story was artificial intelligence’s jump

Welcome to your guide to Pips, the latest game in the New York Times catalogue.Released in August 2025, the Pips puts a unique spin on dominoes, creating a fun single-player experience that could become your next daily gaming habit.Currently, if you're stuck, the game only offers to reveal the entire puzzle, forcing you to move onto the next difficulty level and start over. However, we have you covered! Below are piecemeal answers that will serve as hints so that you can find your way through ea

Donald Trump's golden smartphone won't be arriving anytime soon. Trump Mobile, announced in June and run by the president's children Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, has yet again delayed shipping of its flagship device, the T1, according to a report by the Financial Times.SEE ALSO:Trump Mobile shares T1 model, but something doesn't look right
Speaking to the news publisher, Trump Mobile's customer service team blamed this year's U.S. government shutdown for the phone's delay — without fur

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections &mdas

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As one of Mashable’s sex, dating, and relationships writers, I’ve tested dozens of apps over the past few years, and Hinge is easily the one I get asked about most. Why? Because it’s the landing spot for everyone who's too horny to admit it (and wouldn't be caught dead on Tinder) and for the people who are genuinely ready to swap keys and get a dog together. It’s the app famously "designed to be deleted," and for better or worse, it’s where people go when they want

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CES 2026, the world's most important consumer tech show, kicks off in just a few days. If you're not in Las Vegas to see it live, don't worry: You can watch the key presentations on your phone or computer. To make it easier for you, we've assembled an overview of the key events, livestreams, and presentations. What/when is CES 2026?CES, or Consumer Electronics Show, is an annual technology convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, one of the largest such events in the world. Numerous consumer tech manufa

When a couple is apart from each other, it's traditionally considered a nuisance at best. And you only have to look at Carrie Bradshaw's despairing response to Big moving to Paris in Sex And The City to know that being separate is often thought to be the kiss of death for a romantic relationship.But Gen Z are not only optimistic about the potential of long-distance relationships, but some online are also claiming it's preferable to a traditional relationship. One TikTok user, @brooklyn_crosby, d

Like every year, a slew of new TVs are waiting to be unveiled at CES. Unlike every other year, the big TV brands seem to have quite similar ideas on how to innovate. To sum it up, everyone and their mother is releasing an RGB TV, and CES 2026 is setting the stage for Samsung, LG, Hisense, and more to duke it out in very direct head-to-head comparison.Typically, there's a decent amount of variety between the new TVs from each brand: In 2025, LG's main thing was an expansion of its best-in-class O

2025 offered up some truly fantastic TV, but enough about that year! That's in the past, and the future is calling with some tempting streaming options. What shows are barreling down the pipeline in 2026?SEE ALSO:The 10 best TV shows of 2025, and where to stream them now
The short answer: a lot. 2026 will see the return of several major series, like Bridgerton, Euphoria, The Pitt, and The Boys. This coming year will also usher in not one but two shows set in Westeros, with new series A Knight of

For decades the data landscape was relatively static. Relational databases (hello, Oracle!) were the default and dominated, organizing information into familiar columns and rows.That stability eroded as successive waves introduced NoSQL document stores, graph databases, and most recently vector-based systems. In the era of agentic AI, data infrastructure is once again in flux — and evolving faster than at any point in recent memory.As 2026 dawns, one lesson has become unavoidable: data mat

It's the last Moon of the year, and it's putting on a show. It's so close to being full, so there's plenty you can see when you look up tonight.What is today’s moon phase?As of Wednesday, Dec. 31, the moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. According to NASA's Daily Moon Observation, 88% of the moon will be lit up tonight.With just your naked eye, you'll be able to see the Mares Fecunditatis and Serenitatis, and Vaporum. If you add binoculars, you'll also see the Endymion Crater, the Mare Nectaris,

TL;DR: Live stream Mozambique vs. Cameroon in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free on Channel 4 Sport YouTube. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations sees out the year with a final day of group games. It's already been a thrilling tournament in Morocco, and the final games come from Group F, including Mozambique vs. Cameroon. Mozambique entered this group as underdogs, but while Cameroon are one of the best known African t

TL;DR: Live stream Gabon vs. Ivory Coast in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free on Channel 4. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.It's the final day of group games in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and defending champions Ivory Coast are in action against Gabon. Ivory Coast are one of a handful of teams who could realistically win the whole tournament, along with the likes of Morocco and Senegal, and they have Manchester United's Amad Diallo in the

TL;DR: Live stream Equatorial Guinea vs. Algeria in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations for free on Channel 4. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.As the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations wraps up the group stage, there are still a number of must-watch games to be played. Any game in the tournament with Algeria's Riyad Mahrez comes with a certain interest. The former AFCON winners came into the Morocco-hosted tournament as one of the favorites.While Equatorial Guin

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine. There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from pr

By now, everyone knows that Elon Musk is very much an optimist when it comes to making predictions. That's the nice way to put it. To be blunt, Musk is a "bullshit artist." He makes promises he can't keep. For example, everyone now is likely very familiar with his infamous 2011 interview with the Wall Street Journal where he said he'd put a man on Mars in 10 years. That was 14 years ago now and we're nowhere near putting anyone on Mars. Years ago, Musk also touted his proposed Hyperloop tra

Samsung usually launches its next wave of flagship devices over the winter, and all signs point to an early 2026 launch for the Samsung Galaxy S26 — and the Galaxy Z TriFold. The Galaxy S25 was released in early February, and the Galaxy S24 before it came in late January. Thus, it stands to reason that the Galaxy S26 will come around the same time in 2026. While Samsung hasn't announced any upcoming Galaxy Unpacked events, we fully expect the new generation of Samsung phones to make their